Above the Fold: Detroit sports weekend in review

Michigan and Michigan State: As the winter goes along, Big 10 basketball remains a rumor to me. Though it turned out not having an opportunity to watch Michigan State somehow lose to bottom feeder Penn State was doing me a solid. By losing to both Iowa and Penn St., the Spartans are doing their damnedest to piss away a 1 or 2 seed, and a chance to play at Ford Field in the NCAA's.

Spartans Weblog has already kissed off any chances at their winning the Big 10 title...

I now consider our chances of winning the Big Ten title to be precisely zero. We’ve played four conference road games now–all against the bottom six teams in the conference–and come away just 2-2. We have five conference road games remaining–four of them against the four other top-tier teams in the conference plus a game against an Illinois team that easily could have beaten us Wednesday night. We’ll be lucky to win two of those five games.

There's always the Big 10 tournament, right? Let's hope Tom Izzo can pull Sparty out of their doldrums.

As for Michigan, all anyone cares about is this Wednesday, national signing day for football recruits. As soon as prep QB prospect Terrelle Pryor announces what school he's attending, you'll be able to hear the cheers of joy, or the groans of disappointment, coming out of A2 all over the state. From what I read, he's kind of a big deal...

Detroit Red Wings: What else is new? The Wings continue to dominate the NHL, beating the Boston Bruins 3-1 Saturday night.

What's that? I didn't know there was an NHL team in Boston either! I'd heard rumors, stories from my elders telling me about this team that wore black and yellow sweaters from out east, but I'd had to see this supposed team to believe it.

Guess what? The rumors are true! There is a hockey team in Boston, though we'd never know it from the NHL suck ass scheduling rules.

In other news, the Red Wings have decided to push a player for the Hart Trophy, otherwise known as the league's MVP award. It's not Hank Zetterberg, though he's having a monster season. According to the Macomb Daily's blog loving Bruce McLeod, it's Nick Lidstrom!

It became noticeable this weekend that the Red Wings as an organization are pushing for Nicklas Lidstrom to win the MVP. Bravo.

Coach Mike Babcock mentioned to as many Boston reporters as would listen that he considers Lidstrom to be the best player in the league. Henrik Zetterberg has said that he considers Lidstrom to be the best of the best. Ken Holland, Jim Nill and others are on record that Lidstrom should definitely be in the MVP mix.

It's a nice move by the Wings, as you can't deny that Lidstrom is one of the game's best players. Will it work? I doubt it, as the award will undoubtedly go to someone who's more flashy, not necessarily better. Lidstrom will just get another Norris for the mantle as a consolation prize...

Detroit Pistons: The Pistons are slowly putting together a marvelous season, and much like the Red Wings, it's happening underneath the national radar. After destroying the Dallas Mavericks 90-67 (The Mavs only scored 67 points?) Sunday afternoon, the Pistons have the 2nd best record in the NBA at 34-13. Yes, the Pistons have the 2nd best record in the league!

The bench was as strong as it's been all season, with Rodney Stuckey looking better and better, as DBB's Matt says in his Hoopsworld recap...

That said, Stuckey certainly didn't seem thrown off his game – he finished with 11 points on 5-11 shooting with four boards and a couple of assists. His improvement over the last few games seems to be snowballing, which is great to see.

The young Pistons bench, with Stuckey, Affalo, Johnson and the baby eater, Maxiell, are coming into their own, amd fun as Hell to watch. In fact, they may be the most entertaining young group of players since the X-Factor days of John Salley and Dennis Rodman.

Detroit Tigers: All was quiet till this afternoon, when the Tigers announced the Curtis Granderson signing. My thoughts are here, and you might guess, they are nothing but gushing praise for the Tigers, Granderson and Dave Dombrowski.

It seems the only news we get from the Tigers is good! Not that I'm complaining....

Detroit Lions: All is quiet on the Alen Park front. As the goons on Mlive would put it, screw them losers!

One note from the weekend... Drew Sharp was out of ideas, so he wrote one of those lame "what if" columns. You know the drill. When a columnist comes up with some sort of far-fetched scenario that has no chance in Hell of happening, but makes a case for it anyway. In this case, the far-fetched scenario is if the Lions acquired Mr. Make it Rain, the one man crime wave who's on a first name basis with police all over the country, Pacman Jones.

The Detroit Lions Weblog says why not try for Pacman? The Lions are in desperate straits anyway, so they have nothing to lose by asking...

At this point, as much as it pains me, I am sick enough of the Lions floundering that I would warmly greet a “Pacman” Jones into the organization, especially if the Lions defense doesn’t allow teams to complete 70% of their passes because of it. Sad, I know but……

Hey, what's one more patient in the asylum?

That's a very late "Above the Fold" for Monday, 2-4-08!